   Though the event doesn't officially start until Saturday, many people show up on Friday to get settled in & unloaded in plenty of time to have fun. As usual, we made it into the campground by about 11 in the morning, making us the first ones in. |
| The Mud & More run has been a popular event for us to go to over the last 2 years. This has probably been our 4th time at Buffalo, and the event has gone from us being the biggest truck there, to 44's being a mainstay of the capable participants. Tractor tires are even showing up a lot more now too. The first event of the year is always the biggest for the Buffalo crew. For the last 2 years, photographers from Peterson's 4-wheel & off-road have been showing up for Buffalo's first run of the year. (Articles come out around September) |
Though the event doesn't officially start until Saturday, many people show up on Friday to get settled in & unloaded in plenty of time to have fun. As usual, we made it into the campground by about 11 in the morning, making us the first ones in. |
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A few shots of the pit the day before the event...
They do pit maintenance before filling it with water a couple of days before the event. The water is drained out the night & morning before the event. In the lower left shot, the tractor got stuck trying to break up the bottom with a chisel point. Since we were the only other ones there, they had to borrow one of our clevises in order to pull the tractor out. |
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As with everyone else, we didn't quite finish up everything on the truck before going to Buffalo. Here we were wiring in the auxilliary power unit for the hydraulic steering. |
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Here is Highlander's first run of 1999, and the first test
of the new hydraulic steering. (Click
here to see video of the 1st run) As you can tell, the truck
didn't get stuck, and the steering worked flawlessly.
Click here to see the hydraulic
steering installation |
   This series shows how deep some of the holes are getting at Buffalo. Would you believe that at the first run last year there wasn't a hole big enough for us to get stuck in! Now they are everywhere. |
      You can get anything you want in Buffalo... Even a steam bath if you ask right. This driver asked for it by breaking the front end, and leaving the hammer down for the next few minutes as he wheeled around in rear wheel drive. |
These shots should give you a good idea of the expanse
of the pit at Buffalo:            |
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Just a few more sights at Buffalo... |
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You might see something missing in this picture if you look close enough at the front axle... like the driveshaft. Mid way through the 2nd run, we blew out the CV joint at the T-case end of the shaft. After realizing that we were in 2 wheel, we stopped to eye the damage. Then, Jason & I looked at each other and said 'Well, we are already broken, let's go for it.' So after a few full throttle binges in forward & reverse, we had wheeled past 2 other stuck trucks & out of the pits. The crowd got a big kick out of it, and so did the Peterson's photographers. They were snapping pictures left & right on our way out. They also came by once we were out and took pictures of the twisted shaft and the rest of the truck. A few months later, we discovered that we actually made the magazine. Click Here to see it. |
